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Since I mentioned in my Boot Jai Go post that one of the most popular Hong Kong street vendor’s snacks is egg waffle, I must introduce and record a recipe on my blog. According to Wikipedia, egg waffles were ranked No.1 in a 100 most popular Hong Kong street snack listing. There are many English names (bubble waffle, egg puff, eggettes, just to name a few), but its Cantonese name is Gai Daan Jai (meaning little eggs). One story says the enterprising post-war generation created the egg-shaped mould to make up for an eggless batter as eggs became a luxury in China. Grocery stores would take the cracked eggs and sell the perfect eggs to customers. Throwing away the cracked eggs would be a waste of money, so they turned the eggs into batter and sold them as waffles. After making the egg waffles with the semi-spherical cell pans (pan base is deeper and the cover is shallower), they look like small eggs. I guess this is how it got its name “little eggs”.

Ingredients: (makes 5)

210g

All purpose flour

10g

Baking powder

15g

Custard powder

42g

Tapioca starch

3

Eggs

210g

Granulated Sugar

42g

Low fat milk

210ml

Very cold water

42g

Vegetable oil

3 drops (slightly less than ¼ tsp)

Vanilla extract

Directions:

Measure all ingredients, set aside. (picture 1)

Pour all ingredients into a blender (except vegetable oil and vanilla extract), blend until well mixed. (picture 2)

Add in vanilla extract and oil and blend until combined. (pictures 3 and 4)

Strain the batter through a sieve. (picture 5)

Warm up each side of the mould and brush a thin layer of oil on each side. (picture 6)

Pour the egg batter onto the mould with a ladle and close the mould. Hold the handles firm to keep two sides tight. I turned the fire to medium high. (picture 7)

After 1-2 minutes, flip the pan and cook for 1-2 minutes. You can slightly open the pan to check if the the waffle is slight brown. (picture 8)

Remove the egg waffle from the mould with a fork and place it on a cooling rack. (picture 9)

It should be served hot or warm (cold is not as good). The waffles are crispy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside.

This egg waffle mould/pan makes waffles over the stove. For first time use, clean the pan thoroughly. The first 2 waffles should be discarded. There are some fancy electricity-powered makers that make perfect egg waffles and you don’t need to pay too much attention to the cooking process or need any skill. However, one owner of the waffle shop said “If the skill isn’t there, it doesn’t matter how good your ingredients are.”

Note: Some recipes say the batter should be refrigerated for at least an hour in order to make a perfect egg waffle. To skip this step, I substituted room temperature water with icy-cold water. The result is the same.